Project Lucy

Nico was sitting cross-legged in front of the kneeling, glowing girl.

‘So. What do I call you?’ She asked.

‘Call me?’

‘Do you have a name?’

The girl huffed.

‘I told you, I’m not giving them anything until I’m released.’

‘Okay, fine. But you have to give me something to work with, I have a feeling these people wouldn’t mind starving both us for answers. Wait, do you even eat?’

‘Yes. I eat. But I’m not hungry, the stasis pod kept me nourished. I am thirsty though.’

‘Thirsty. As in, for water?’

‘Yes, for water.’ The girl said rolling her eyes ‘What else would I mean?’

‘Hey, I don’t know what rainbows drink!’ Nico protested, before turning to look at the camera. ‘Can we get her some water? She’s thirsty.’

‘We don’t even know what effect it could have on her.’ The PRIDE agent said. ‘Not to mention the possible contact with pathogens.’

‘Yes, yes, I read The War of the Worlds.’ Nico sighed before turning back to the girl. ‘They’re afraid you might get sick. From uh, local diseases. It actually kind of makes sense.’

‘Won’t be a problem. Augmented immune system. Not to mention, my people have been travelling across stars for a while now, so it was pretty good in the first place. Trust me, if it’s carbon-based, it’s not a problem.’

‘Uh…’

‘What did she say?’

‘She can’t get sick. She seems pretty sure. Apparently her kind is no stranger to space travel. Come on, just give the girl some water.’

‘...I’ll see what I can do.’ The man said. Nico smiled.

‘Seems like we’re getting somewhere. So, back to the name thing...I can’t just keep calling you Rainbow Girl, can I?

The girl rolled her eyes but smiled before saying something. Nico paused.

’It kinda sounds like you said...Karolina Dean?’

‘No.’ The girl said, before repeating what she had said.

‘Right, that’s what I said. Karolina Dean. Just so you know, I’m writing it with a K in my head, prettier that way. Uh, not that you’d know what that means.’

The girl huffed.

‘I suppose it’s close enough. What is yours, then?’

‘Nico. Minoru.’

The girl repeated it, much more gracefully than Nico had done with her name, but still with a slight accent. Nico nodded, and the girl nodded back.

‘Well Karolina, how are we going to do this?’

‘Do what?’

‘Figure out a way for this fine people to stop poking you with needles and all that?’

‘So...you’re really going to help me?’

‘That’s why I’m here. But I’m going to be honest, I don’t have a plan. Like, at all. So, any ideas?’

‘If you can just get them to release me from these stupid things,’ Karolina said, shaking the chains. ‘I’m pretty sure I can just blast my way out of here. Then all I have to do is fly away. But ideally, I’d like to find my pod to see if I can send out a distress signal.’

Nico coughed.

‘Yeah, they’re probably...taking care of that.’ She said, hoping the people on the other side of the camera would assume she was talking about the water. ‘I’ll see what I can do. But, what do you mean…’ She paused and leaned closer to Karolina. ‘What do you mean, blast? And what do you mean fly away?’

‘Oh. It’s just...something that I can do. But they seem to have figured out that my light is more than just pretty colours, the moment I try to use more energy it drains it. So I’m saving it for the right time.’

As she said that, the door opened and a blonde woman in a lab coat walked in, carrying a glass of water. The moment she saw her, Karolina’s eyes widened and she tried to put distance between her and the woman.

‘What’s wrong?’ Nico asked, looking from one of them to the other.

‘She’s not touching me again!’ Karolina said. For a moment, she began to glow brighter, but after a second it stopped. The woman stopped walking.

‘I was told she asked for water?’ She asked coldly. ‘Does she not want it?’

‘She doesn’t want you. What did you do to her?’ Nico asked, standing up to put herself between the woman and Karolina.

‘My job. Nothing more. Now please step aside, I need to give her the water personally.’

‘Don’t let her come near me.’ Karolina pleaded behind her. Nico sighed.

‘She’s here to give you water.’

‘If you think I’m going to trust anything she-’

‘What if she drinks from it first?’ Nico asked. The woman raised an eyebrow. After a second, Karolina sighed.

‘Fine.’ She said. Nico stepped aside. The woman walked to Karolina and presented the glass of water, but Karolina looked at her defiantly.

‘You heard what I said, lady. You first.’ Nico said. The woman looked at the camera.

‘Go ahead.’ Said a new voice, a man she didn’t recognize. The woman shrugged and drank from the glass. Then she presented it to Karolina again. The girl leaned in, but kept her eyes on the woman the entire time. Once the glass was empty, the woman stepped back.

‘She better be more cooperative in the future.’ She said.

‘Maybe she would if she wasn’t restrained.’

‘Listen, honey.’ The woman said, taking a step towards Nico. Once again, the room got brighter for a second as Karolina lit up and the chains drained her. ‘I don’t know what you think is going on here, but this…thing, here is an alien. She’s not a human. We don’t know what makes her tick. For all we know, her kind are all psychopaths. We don’t even know if she feels things. Well, except pain, we’re pretty sure she feels pain.’

‘You bitch-’ Nico began, taking a step to the woman.

‘Nico.’ Tina’s voice came from the speaker. Nico stopped. ‘Don’t make this even worse for yourself.’

‘Listen to your mommy, honey.’ The woman said with a wink. ‘You’re lucky you don’t have a project all to yourself. And to get back to my point: don’t trust the alien. The lights might be pretty, but you don’t know what hides beneath them. It’s our job to find out.’

Nico watched the woman walk away, her fists shaking. Whatever was beneath the lights, she knew, had to be a lot better than whatever was beneath that woman’s skin.

‘Are you okay? What did she say?’ Karolina asked.

‘Nothing I shouldn’t have expected, I suppose.’ Nico said, turning back to her with the best smile she could muster. ‘But it seems like both of us might be staying here for a while. So, you know, let’s get to work.’

The only sounds were the airplanes engines and the occasional cough from one of the dozens of men armed to the teeth

‘What does Diverse Entities even mean, anyway?’ Someone asked.

‘Huh?’ Chase looked up from his weapon at Mike, his squad’s newest member.

‘Diverse Entities. You know, the DE in PRIDE. It seems...vague.’

‘That’s the point.’ Their captain said. ‘There’s a lot of weird going on out there. We catch it. That’s what it means.’

‘It means we don’t ask questions.’ Chase added. His captain nodded.

‘See? Stein gets it.’ He said. Chase nodded back and looked at the files the man next to him was studying. He found a deinonychus looking back at him.

‘Yeah.’ He said to himself as his hands tightened around his weapon. ‘I get it.’

‘-and then I said, ‘no, but the squirrel sure is!’’Nico finished. Karolina laughed.

‘That is so funny!’ She said.

‘Right?’ Nico said.

‘Miss Minoru.’ The PRIDE agent said flatly through the speaker. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Killing time until you idiots figure out she’s no good to you like this, obviously.’ Nico said. ‘Just give the girl a bed or something, this is inhuman.’

‘She’s not human.’ The blonde woman’s voice came through the speaker. ‘We’ve been over this.’

‘Oh. You’re still around. Hooray.’ Nico said coldly. Karolina released a strange string of profanities.

‘What did she say?’ The woman asked.

‘Well, she called you a lisonon-eater, among other things.’ Nico said with a smirk. ‘They only get uglier. Now, it’s been hours. You have to realize you can’t just hold her like this forever. You have to-’

The door opened. A man walked in carrying a strange circular device under his arm. He approached Nico and examined her with calculating eyes.

‘Nico Minoru.’ He said. ‘You’ve been a handful, haven’t you?’

‘Just doing what I can with what I’ve got, mister.’ Nico said with a shrug.

‘That’s Director. Director Stein.’ The man said. ‘I must admit, when your mother suggested we bring you in I was skeptical, but you succeeded where she failed. I’m impressed. That does not happen often.’

‘I know you can’t tell by my face,’ Nico said rolling her eyes. ‘But I’m flattered.’

The man chuckled, shaking his head.

‘You remind me of my son. No respect for authority. But as amusing as this is, I’m afraid there must be order. Now, here’s what’s going to happen. I will put this collar around her neck. It will dampen her radiation emissions, but will let her move around the room. Then, I will set the dampener to full power. It’s probably going to hurt a lot. I will take a blood sample while she’s in that state, for research purposes, and turn the dampener back down to the base level, which is the same the chains have. If she’s cooperative, the chains need not come back.’

Nico looked at the device.

‘What do you mean by ‘a lot’?’ She asked.

‘Do you want the scientific definition? Just give her the message.’ The man said impatiently. Nico turned to Karolina, who gave her a worried look.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Well, this is sort of a good news, bad news situation. Mostly bad.’ She said, before explaining to her what the man had said. When she was finished, Karolina nodded.

‘Okay.’ She said. ‘Tell him to do it.’

Nico looked at the man and nodded. Then she approached Karolina and knelt besides her, placing a hand on her shoulder. There was a click  and a beeping sound as the collar closed around the girl’s neck.

‘Chains.’ The man said. It sounded like a command. There was another click, and the chains fell to the ground. Karolina rubbed her wrists and smiled. Then the man took the syringe out of his coat’s pocket and she stiffened.

‘Hey, it’s okay.’ Nico said, rubbing her shoulder. ‘It’ll just be a second.’

The collar beeped again and Karolina’s light began to fade, revealing a blonde girl in plain grey clothes. After a moment she began to shake and almost fell to the ground. As Nico caught her, the man leaned forward and grabbed Karolina’s arm.

‘Just hurry up!’ Nico said as Karolina yelled in pain.

‘You keep her still.’ Stein said, aligning the syringe with Karolina’s arm. After a few seconds that lasted forever, it was over. Slowly, Karolina began to glow again.

‘That...was awful.’ She said, gasping for air.

‘I know.’ Nico said, holding her and helping her stand up. ‘But it’s over now. You’re okay.’

‘We’re done here for the day.’ Stein said. ‘Miss Minoru, my men will escort you to your room. We can continue your...interrogation of the subject tomorrow.’

‘My room? Or my cell?’

‘Call it whatever you like. Just be there in the next five minutes.’ The man said as he walked away and left the room.

‘You’re leaving, aren’t you?’ Karolina asked.

‘For today.’ Nico said. ‘You’re not getting rid of me that easily.’

‘What are we going to do now? With this collar...there’s no way I can escape like this.’

‘We’ll figure it out. We just need to be patient. For now just get some rest, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.’ She began to stand up, but Karolina pulled her into a tight hug.

‘Thank you.’ The girl said in Nico’s ear.

‘My pleasure.’ Nico said, hugging her back. She told herself it was because the girl clearly really needed it, but it was a very nice hug. ‘Take care, okay?’

‘You too.’ Karolina said as they ended the hug.

‘Tick tock, Minoru.’ The blonde woman’s voice said. As Nico walked away glaring at the camera, Karolina gave it the finger.

He was in the middle of the jungle in Yucatan. Alone. He had a gun, yes, but she had a dinosaur. The good news: he could track the dinosaur. The bad news: he was getting closer and closer to a dinosaur. He wished he could call for backup, but he couldn’t afford it. Before bringing her in, Chase needed some time alone with Yorkes.